Skid steer vehicles have recently come on the market with suspensions that permit the chassis to move up and down with respect to the ground. Prior skid steer vehicles were rigidly supported for movement over the ground.
Skid steer vehicles with suspensions are prone to oscillating when driven over rough terrain with changing loads. They have a relatively small wheel base, and as a result, when they are driven over the ground the oscillations of the suspensions can be substantial, depending, among other things, on the vehicle load, the vehicle speed and the terrain over which the vehicle is operating.
What is needed, therefore, is a skid steer vehicle having a system and method for automatically varying the damping of the suspensions based upon operating conditions in an automatic mode of operation. What is also needed is a system and method for automatically varying the damping based on vehicle speed. What is also needed is a system and method for automatically varying the damping based on vehicle load.
Skid steer vehicles are intended for use in a wide variety of applications in many different configurations, however. It is difficult to accommodate all these applications and configurations automatically.
What is also needed is a system and method that permit the operator to manually vary the suspension damping in a manual mode of operation and will permit the operator to select between the mechanical mode of operation and the automatic mode.
It is an object of this application to provide a system or method with these capabilities in at least one embodiment, although not all embodiments described herein may have all these capabilities.